Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

5-13-2011

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; PSN Subject Matter eJournals; Political Economy - International eJournals; Political Economy - Comparative eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Humanities Network; Political Science Network; Employment, Labor, Compensation & Pension Law eJournals; Political Behavior eJournals

Abstract

Joan Williams believes that Americas shabby treatment of working parents needs to change and that men should participate equally in this struggle In this essay I show how capitalisms drive for higher profits creates adverse working conditions with the devaluation of childbearing and child rearing contributing as well At the same time the different hopes and objectives of professionalclass workers dim the prospect for coalition between them and their working class counterparts These formidable obstacles stemming from the way our material society agrees to function are a larger impediment than the cultural factors Professor Williams highlights and are the primary hurdle that workplace reforms will need to surmount As well one should never discount how money influences both personal and political thinking The United States is a childunfriendly nation because this is profitable for corporations and elite groups and makes familyworkplace reforms harder to accomplish

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